Employee Ownership A Big Tent

Recent acts of co-operation are moving forward the employee-ownership movement in significant ways.

In the United States, support for employee-ownership bills is coming from across partisan bounds. In Canada, all four major political parties spoke in favour of a people-centred economy of which co-operatives and other locally-owned business would form a crux. In the United Kingdom, the new coalition government is looking at turning some of its health institutions into social enterprises that include co-operatives.

But it’s not just politicians that are transcending ideological bounds and supporting the employee-ownership cause.

The employee ownership movement, which encompasses co-operatives, employee-share ownership plans (ESOPs) and other stock option plans, are working together to endorse the values of employee ownership.

Regardless of structure, many organizations are collaborating to achieve shared success, as we were able to observe most recently during the Vermont Employee Ownership conference.

These events are demonstrating the unifying nature of employee ownership, which has been proven to bolster business outcomes including engagement, productivity, employment and sales. Studies have also found that employee-owned companies are more resilient and stay in business longer.

Adding to this, Axiom News finds that employee-ownership environments tend to exhibit a heightened sense of a social mandate both inside and outside the organization. This can range from business defining their mission in social terms to increased volunteering, corporate giving and a commitment to local economy, to name a few.

All said, these events are encouraging and we anticipate greater co-operation with this movement and possibly, in time, with other movements.

As a new report on co-operation finds, the ability to co-operate effectively stimulates new ways of thinking and organizing while challenging those involved to be innovative and devise collaborative frameworks.

Employee ownership, tied together with other movements like workplace democracy, social business, servant leadership and Fair Trade, is a critical component of the next economy.